Title: Colloidal stability tests on vacuum residue hydrocracked products obtained at increasing severity

Authors: Kirtika Kohli; Ravindra Prajapati; Nivedita Singh; Samir K. Maity

Addresses: Residue Conversion Area, CSIR-Indian Institute of Petroleum, Dehradun-248005, India ' Residue Conversion Area, CSIR-Indian Institute of Petroleum, Dehradun-248005, India ' Residue Conversion Area, CSIR-Indian Institute of Petroleum, Dehradun-248005, India ' Residue Conversion Area, CSIR-Indian Institute of Petroleum, Dehradun-248005, India

Abstract: Stability of the thermally hydrocracked products has been investigated by measuring different parameters such as colloidal instability index (CII), Stankiewicz plot (SP), qualitative-quantitative analysis (QQA), stability cross plots (SCP), spot tests, merit number and separability number (SN). Each parameter is measured in the products obtained from two vacuum residues having different asphaltene content. The stability of the hydrocracked product is different for the different parameters. But in general, the products obtained at lower and higher temperature are stable by most of the parameters. Spot test and separability number gives the similar results. Interestingly, it is found that the product obtained at 420°C from low asphaltene content feed is unstable by all above said stability parameters whereas the product (at 420°C) from high asphaltene content feed is stable, indicating that the stability of a hydrocracked product depends not only on the asphaltene content of a feed but also the nature of other components such as aromatic and resin. It is also observed that CII and SP parameters which are calculated from SARA fractions also predict colloidal stability with good agreement. [Received: November 24, 2016; Accepted: April 2, 2017]

Keywords: colloidal instability index; stability cross plot; separability number; asphaltene.

DOI: 10.1504/IJOGCT.2019.099521

International Journal of Oil, Gas and Coal Technology, 2019 Vol.21 No.1, pp.76 - 90

Received: 24 Nov 2016
Accepted: 02 Apr 2017
Published online: 08 May 2019 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article